


we're halfway there

by gennified



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Bon Jovi references, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, M/M, only a vague understanding of the mechanics of ghosts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:40:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27580145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gennified/pseuds/gennified
Summary: Julie can’t see Willie. Until one day, she can.
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina, Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina & Willie
Comments: 38
Kudos: 457





	we're halfway there

Julie can’t quite get the chord progression right in the song she and Luke had written over the weekend, so she arrives early to the garage to practice. They’ve booked a show for the weekend, on the local stage at a nearby music festival, and she wants to make sure she’s perfect. The boys are nowhere to be seen, but she knows they’ll be back before band practice is supposed to start. They may have let her down once, but they’ve never done it again. 

She sits carefully at the piano and throws herself into the chorus. She knows she can get it right. All she needs is a little bit more practice. Again, and then again. She can do this. Just once more. 

And then she does get it right, hitting all the right chords with not a finger out of place. It’ll take a little more to get it right while she’s singing, too, but that’s what they’ll work on tonight at their band practice. For now, she can be proud of herself. 

She glances up to the clock, wondering when her boys will arrive, but on the way her eyes catch an unexpected sight. 

There’s a teenage boy with long hair and a tie dye crop top, standing in the middle of the room and watching her with a smile. 

She screams. 

“Wait, what—” the boy starts, eyes darting around wildly as he tries to figure out what has set Julie off. “Can you _see_ me?” 

“Willie?” she asks as the realization hits her. She can’t see Willie. This is an established fact. Julie has watched a countless number of times as Alex hugged the invisible space in front of him, or held hands with nothing, or sat on the couch with his arm awkwardly floating where Willie’s shoulders would be. They were all disappointed that her supernatural powers didn’t extend to Willie, but they had accepted it. 

And yet, here Willie stands in front of her, clear as day. The questions come in an onslaught. “How can I see you? How did this happen? I mean, good job, Alex, seriously, but _how_ can I see you?” 

“No clue,” Willie replies with a laugh. “But it’s pretty rad, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah, it is,” she says as she sits back on the piano bench. He’s much calmer than she would be in his position. “Well, it’s nice to finally meet you, I guess. I mean, we’ve met before, sort of, but…”

“It’s not the same,” he acknowledges. “Nice to meet you, too.”

There’s a moment of silence, and Willie shifts awkwardly on his feet and worrying at his bottom lip, as if he’s debating whether or not to say something. Julie is about to step in and ask him if he’s looking for Alex when he finally speaks up. 

“I’ve wanted to tell you—I mean, I’ve asked Alex to tell you, but I’ve always wanted to tell you myself—you are crazy talented. The way you sing and the way you play. Your whole stage presence is amazing,” he says, and neither of them can fight back their smiles. She’s heard so much about Willie from Alex and even from Luke and Reggie, who seem to like him a lot, too, and she knows he’s been to their band practices and their shows. Simultaneously it feels like she’s known him for months and is just meeting him now for the first time. 

“Thanks. And thank you, for what you did for us with the Orpheum,” she says. Willie just shrugs her off. Alex has told her how guilty he feels about the entire Hollywood Ghost Club debacle, though no one blames him for it. 

Julie realizes how awkwardly Willie is standing in the middle of the room, hugging his helmet to his chest and rocking back and forth in his feet, like he doesn’t know what to do with his body. 

“Why don’t you sit down?” she suggests, and Willie nods, sitting himself carefully on the couch. “I guess you’re looking for Alex? I’m not really sure where they are. I think they're all out trying to track down Reggie’s parents.” As long as they aren’t trying to haunt Trevor again. “But they should be back soon.” 

“I was coming to watch the band practice. Alex said you were working on a new song? Was that the one you were playing?” 

“Yeah, we’re thinking of playing it at the festival this weekend,” she replies.

“Well, it sounds great,” Willie says with a nod. “And I’m sure the drumming will be top notch, too.”

She laughs. “It’s good to know you hype Alex up as much as he does for you.” 

“I mean, have you seen him play? He deserves to be hyped,” replies Willie. His voice sinks a little softer. “He talks about me with you?”

“Never shuts up, really,” she groans. She doesn’t really mind it, but she loves to tease. And she doesn’t think it really bothers Willie to hear about it, either, although Alex will certainly pout at her when he finds out. “‘Willie popped a triple ollie today’ or ‘You should have seen the crop top Willie was wearing.’”

Willie laughs, bright and loud, covering his face to hide the blush forming on his cheeks. “I’ll have to wear crop tops more often.” 

“Oh please don’t. That might actually kill him.”

“Well, lucky for him, he’s already dead,” Willie replies. Julie can’t believe that even for a single moment she forgot that. It’s been almost like the boys are becoming more and more alive to her as each day passes.

“Right. Well then, crop top away,” she suggests. 

“Duly noted,” he responds, and the two lapse into silence.

“Sorry,” he says after a moment. “This is the first time I’ve been seen by a lifer outside of Caleb’s club since… well, since I died, I guess. It’s like I’m not sure how to even interact with you guys anymore.”

“How long has that been, exactly?” she asks as she moves from the piano to the old chair next to the couch. Her boys died in 1995, but she realizes she has no clue about Willie. He’s been a ghost for a while, given that the guys all turn to him for answers, but they disappeared for twenty-five years. Willie could still be younger than them. He is the one to teach them all the Gen Z slang they know (but still can’t use correctly, no matter how many times Luke tries to compliment her by telling her that he’s a simp for her.) The math on their ages makes her head hurt, so she tries not to think about it for too long.

“Are you trying to ask me when I died? You know that’s super offensive to a ghost, right?” he says, looking hurt. 

She gasps, covering her face in embarrassment. “Oh my god, I am so sorry, I didn’t know.”

He holds a straight face for only a moment longer, bursting out into a fit of laughter. “You should have seen the look on your face! I was kidding. It’s not offensive at all. Let me put it this way. When I died, Bon Jovi was still getting number one hits on the radio.”

Julie scrunches up her face as she tries to process this. “Okay, so either, like, 1988 or 2001.” 

“Oh yeah, I forgot about ‘It’s My Life.’ I died in ‘87, actually.” Once glance at Julie’s face sends him into a laughing fit.

“You’re so _old_ ,” she says on an exhale. “How are you the person that taught Alex who Mitski is?”

“It helps that I didn’t disappear into the void for twenty-five years like they did. Honestly, I’m surprised they don’t suffer from even more culture shock.” 

Julie nods. “There’s so much I still don’t understand. Why did they disappear until I played their CD? Did no one else play one of their CDs until now? Or does it have to do with the specific CD my mom had?”

“And why did they even have a CD back in 1995, anyway, when everyone was still using cassettes?” Willie adds on. 

“Exactly! It’s lucky for them, though, because I wouldn’t even know how to play a cassette if that’s what their souls were left behind in.”

“Lucky for us,” replies Willie. He and Julie share a gentle smile. “Okay, now it’s my turn to question you. How do you know so much about Bon Jovi if you weren’t even born until, like, 2005?”

Hiding her laugh behind a hand, Julie replies, “That’s actually how my parents met. My dad was their tour photographer for a while. My mom was a venue manager, and they met at a show.”

“No way! That’s rad. Alex has never mentioned that.”

Julie pauses. “I’ve actually never told them that before.” The boys almost never ask her about her mother. They had tried, when she had first accidentally summoned them, but Julie had always brushed them off, the pain of talking about her still too sharp. Now, though, talking about her doesn’t hurt; if anything, remembering how her parents fondly reminisced about their eyes meeting during “Bed of Roses” and _knowing_ they had just met their soulmate, fills her with a wistful fondness for their family dinners, rather than the stinging yearning she’s felt for them over the last year. When did that change happen? It must have been too slow to notice the shift from hurt to healing. 

“You should. I think they’d love to hear it,” Willie tells her, though he quickly adds on, “if you want to tell them, of course.” 

“Yeah,” she replies with a smile. “I think I will. I have a lot of cool stories about my mom to tell them.” 

They’re interrupted by a soft whoosh. 

“Willie! Hey Julie, Willie is—” He stops, looking between them. “Wait, were you two just talking?”

“We can see each other now!” Willie replies cheerfully. 

“Any clue what’s causing it? Did you do anything?” Julie asks Alex. 

“What? How is that possible?” Alex squeaks, looking between them. “Is this a Caleb trick?” 

Willie shrugs. “I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s any real benefit for him if Julie can see me.” 

“Yeah, something must have happened.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense. You couldn’t see him last week,” replies Alex, a hint of distress creeping into his voice. Too much change at once, Julie realizes. Willie is on the same wavelength, on his feet in a second to place a comforting hand on Alex’s back. The effect is almost instant: Julie can see Alex visibly calm at Willie’s touch. Alex catches Willie’s eyes and reassuring smile, and it seems like the rest of the world around the two of them has melted away. And then it clicks.

“Love!” she blurts out. “It’s love. I love Alex, and Alex is in love with you, and that’s why I can see you.” 

Willie lets out a little breathless sound as Alex immediately takes a step back, shoving his hands in his pockets and staring hard at a spot on the floor. Julie instantly realizes her mistake: Alex hasn’t told Willie he loves him yet. 

“Oh my gosh.” Her hands flew to her mouth. “I’m so sorry.” 

“It’s fine,” Willie tries to reassure her, though he doesn't look at her when he speaks, keeping his eyes trained on Alex. 

“I shouldn’t have said that--”

“It’s okay, really,” Willie tries again. 

“You know, I keep praying the floor is going to open up and swallow me whole and it keeps not doing that,” says Alex. 

Wilie reaches a hand out to rub his back reassuringly. “Julie, do you mind if I borrow Alex? We might be a couple of minutes late for band practice.”

“Of course, take your time.” 

Willie coaxes Alex’s hand out of his pocket and in a second, they are gone, and Julie is left alone in the garage. She should feel worse, she knows, but the softness in Willie’s voice and the way his eyes never left Alex seemed to say that it wasn’t a bad thing at all.

She only has a moment to recollect her thoughts when there’s another whooshing sound, followed quickly by the squelch of wet sneakers. 

With a grimace, she turns to find Luke and Reggie, soaked to the bone and trying very hard not to look suspicious. 

“Hey Julie, ready for band practice?” starts Luke.

“Why are you _wet_?” 

“No reason,” Luke replies a little too quickly. 

Unfortunately, at the same time Reggie replies, “We didn’t steal a golf cart, we swear.”

Luke smacks him. Julie can feel a headache coming. “Okay, but that doesn’t explain why you are wet.” 

“Well, so there was this pond on the golf course, and—”

“Actually, you know what? I don’t want to know.” 

“Where’s Alex?” asks Luke. “He left when we wouldn’t listen to him. We sort of figured he was coming here to rat us out to you.” 

“He’ll be a few minutes late, so let’s go ahead and get started.”

“Can we at least change clothes first?” asks Reggie. 

“No, this is your punishment.” 

\----

Alex poofs back before they are even finished working out the kinks of the first verse, his cheeks bright red and his hand clasped tight in Willie’s. With one glimpse between the two of them, Luke raises his eyebrows and starts like he’s about to say something when he catches Julie glaring him into silence. If she had accidentally taken away their first ‘I love you,’ then the least she could do is prevent the others from teasing them about it. 

The rest of practice goes off without a hitch—Julie is so glad that she came out to the studio early to nail down the chorus, no matter what came of that for Alex and Willie in the end—and when things wind down, everyone is feeling confident for their show that weekend. 

Willie leaves to skate the Santa Monica Pier, with a promise that he’ll be at their show that weekend. “It was nice seeing you,” he tells Julie, and he laughs as he poofs away. 

With the unmistakable squishing sound of still-wet sneakers, Luke and Reggie kick Julie out so they can finally change into something dry. They still won’t tell her _why_ they stole a golf cart, but the more she doesn’t know, the better. 

She barely has a moment to settle down in her room with her chemistry textbook when there’s a knock on the door. 

“Come in!” 

Alex slides through the door, looking sheepish but unable to hide the grin that had been plastered to his face ever since he’d returned to the garage with Willie. 

“Oh, Alex, hey. I really wanted to apologize—” she starts, but he interrupts her almost immediately. 

“Don’t, it’s all cool. In fact, I came up here to tell you specifically not to feel bad about it,” he says, sitting in the spot next to her on her bed. 

“But still, that should have been a moment for you two. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Sometimes I need a little push to say what’s on my mind. And it worked out pretty well in the end, so…” he trails off with a shrug.

“I’m so happy for you.” She pulls him into a tight hug and whatever tension was left seems to melt away. 

“Honestly, I never imagined feeling like this about someone before, dead or alive.”

“Well, soon you’ll see a million faces and rock them all.” 

Alex pulls back and gives her the most judgmental look he can muster. “Was that a Bon Jovi reference? What year are we in again?”

She laughs as she rests her head on his shoulder. “Did I ever tell you how my parents met?”

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from bon jovi's 'livin' on a prayer' and towards the end, julie quotes their song 'wanted (dead or alive)' to alex. 
> 
> thank you to @BabyGenius for beta reading this for me! this is pure self-indulgent fluff because julie and willie deserve more love.


End file.
